“It’s a completely different world from my role as a nurse in *Doctor X*”—Mio Imada Shows Her Sparkling Eyes During Filming for Her Lead Role in the July Drama

Still clearly buzzing with excitement,

In early April, when a chill still lingered even after sunset, filming for the drama was taking place in a park in Koto Ward, Tokyo.

Inside the park, a large number of staff members wearing black down jackets were bustling about. Amidst them, there was just one woman dressed in a dress… Actress Mio Imada (29).

“In May of this year, it was announced that Imada would star in TV Asahi’s Tuesday drama series for the July season, *Crossroad: The Promise of Emergency Medicine*. Imada plays Haruka Haruki, an emergency physician working in the Emergency Medicine Department at Yokohama Bay Hospital.“She is an elite doctor who graduated at the top of her medical school class and is highly skilled, but she is still a young doctor lacking experience. This is a medical drama where youthful, passionate ideals of justice intersect, depicting how she and other young people—such as emergency medical technicians and police officers—work together and grow, even as they sometimes clash,” said a TV magazine writer.

For Imada, this marks her first drama appearance since starring in last year’s NHK morning drama *Anpan*. She has also appeared on TV Asahi since 2019 in *Doctor X: Surgeon Michiko Daimon* as a nurse, but this will be her first role as a doctor.A preview event was held in Tokyo on June 30, where Imada took the stage. In response to a question from a medical student aspiring to become a doctor who was invited to the venue—“Is it different from playing a nurse?”—

“It’s completely different. In the surgery scenes of *Doctor X*, I’ve played the role of handing scalpels and instruments to the doctors, but just by changing my position, the whole perspective changes completely. That was interesting, and I also got the impression that the language used is a little different,”

she remarked.

Let’s return to the beginning of the story. It seemed they were filming a tense scene, and a rather nervous atmosphere hung in the air. A short while later, after wrapping up the shoot, Imada was helped into a down jacket by a staff member, but even then, the excitement from the shoot hadn’t quite subsided, and she wore an elated expression.

On TV Asahi’s official website, Imada wrote:

“While filming, I found myself thinking, ‘Is this what they mean by “whether you cry or laugh, morning comes”? This is a coming-of-age drama for adults,’ and it really moved me. I hope this series inspires everyone to think, ‘Let’s do our best again tomorrow.’ Please be sure to watch it!”

. Expectations are high for this coming-of-age drama featuring Imada’s protagonist, which is quite different from his previous roles in *Doctor X* and *Anpan*.

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